When people think of Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends nine times out of ten they remember either of the CGI era of the show or it's original model era. However they never ever think about the dreadful reboot that Mattel put together and well with the release of the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today it officially marks both the end of the show All Engines Go but also marks the last official production that Nelvana worked on due to them going bankrupt and being put out of busisness and so then join me as I review the fil that officially sees that dreadful All Engines Go series come to and end with the film in question being called simply just "Thomas & Friends: Sodor Sings Together" enjoy.
The plot of this film is with Sodor hosting it's annual music festival the engines have to help to set up but when a surprise gets ruined it's to Thomas and the engines to fix it before the start of the festival. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad with the film not really having a plot to speak off with it seeming like that the characters are just going through the motions alot of the time with this films plot feeling like it's nothing more then an extended episode of the show as that's how bad this films plot really is but to be fair tho the plot of the film is strong enough to support an entire film it just needed to be focused on alot more and that's really it and also have things happen that actually advance the plot of the film but for some odd reason the makers of this film instead chose to give this film the most bare bones plot which might be fine for All Engines Go which also had very bare bones plots to it but for something that is a series finale and is meant to be a celebration of the show it feels like no effort and no thought was put into this films with everything that happens in the film only happening for random reasons and not because of the fact that the films plot demands that they happen with this being fine for a few minuets but the whole film is like that and heck there's not even a big incident for large portions of the film which really makes this plot feel like a plot of the show that out stretched out into that of a film with the plot of this film not even being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Kai Harris as Thomas , Neil Crone as Gordon , Charlie Zeltzer as Percy and Joe Pingue as Whiff. Also starring in this film is Talia Evans as Nia , Will Bhaneja as Diesel , Scott McCord as Salty , Ivan Sherry as Winston , Jenna Warren as Carly , Glee Dango as Sandy , Ava Ro as Kana , Catherine Disher as Annie , Linda Kash as Clarabel and Reginald , Chuck Smith as Bruno , Milo Toriel-McGibbon as Terence , Jamie Watson as Bulstrode and Bruce Dow as Sir Topham Hatt.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As the films actors are indeed trying to turn in a good performance which in the case of actor Neil Crone does make sense as he has played Gordon before in the god awful Thomas And The Magic Railroad and so he does have some experience with the character and does know just how this version of the character would act in any given situation and while the films kid actors are trying to turn in a good performance they are still kids afterall with there performances alot of the time being very wooden which is of no fault of theirs as rather that's something that the voice director for the film should have dealt with but it is something that does stop there performances from being as good as they could have been as you can tell right away that they are acting their hearts out in this film but there just not able to give the best performance as is humanly possible with there acting being at best OK as they are trying to turn in a good performance they just needed better direction to get that performance out of them and that's really it with the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this film actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that really were currently over at Nelvana. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that good with this films animation being on par with that of All Engines Go with the film lacking any detailed backgrounds none of which is hard to tell on if there's any distance in the hills or nor and quite frankly the less about the characters just jumping from one set of tracks to the other the better look to be fair there are some decent things to be found in this films animation like all of the engines having these really cute designs to them which granted might not be alot of people's cup of tea but they are designs that do work for these versions of the characters at best this films animation is just passable which I guess is fine given this films target little kid audience but at the same time tho the Thomas brand is a brand that's beloved by both kids and adults and anything you do with it is going to have adults interested to because they grew up with it and therefor having animation that just looks cheap and rushed feels like a slap to the face of the fans that stuck with the property through it's many ups and downs and while the fact that the animation looks cheaply done might be a Mattel thing as Nelvana did usually turn in high quality animation heck just look at any of there stuff from the eighties as proof of that and yet here it just felt like that they were slumming up and only turning in half decent animation when that's not something that the Thomas brand deserves.
Believe it or not this film actually marks the end of All Engines Go as a series with it being the series fourth and final film. This is a very good thing as nobody be it those that are die hard Thomas fans or those that are just casual fans liked the show to begin with and it's not that hard to see why as put it lightly this show makes Teen Titans Go look like a masterpiece by comparison as it was made by people that clearly didn't love the Thomas brand and was instead turned into something that's for lack of a better word dumb however perhaps the biggest insult of all is the fact that they made the American dub the official dub moving dub moving forward as for decades the show was made in the UK with the UK dub being the official dub which is something that makes sense as the characters are British and the franchise as a whole is a British franchise and therefor handing it over to the Americans feels like a betrayal of everything that came before it as now it's the UK dub is the one that's not the official dub of the show when it should be the other way around and while Teen Titans Go at least has some charm to it which does make you forgive it for alot of it's early faults this show on the other hand has none of that and instead just packs it's episodes with moments that leave you smacking your hand on your head several times like for example in an episode where Thomas had to teach Kana to go slow both characters end up stuck in a field not far from any tracks now in the original show or even the CGI show this would be treated as being a big deal and would even be a plot point in the episode but here both Thomas and Kana quite literally jump on to some nearby tracks which is just something that NO train would be able to do and that's how little that the makers of this show actually cared about what they were putting up on screen.
Like alot of the Thomas films this film is also a musical with the film having really quite alot of songs in it. To be fair the films songs aren't that bad as they are pretty well done but in saying that tho this films songs aren't also that good either with them just being passable at best but credit where it is due tho the makers of this film did at least know to give us some pretty catchy songs with the best example of this being the films title song "Tonight Is The Night" which is a pretty decent number that does get sung quite alot of the time all throughout the film with the rest of the films songs like "Make Room For Music" and "Just Think Of It" being songs that are just there to pad out the films running time as they add nothing to the overall plot of the film but to give this film some credit all of the films songs are decently well sung with it being clear as day that all the members of the films cast can sing with even some of the songs being decently well written as well but tho that doesn't mean that the film needs to have as many songs as it has in it as this film has five songs in it each one is about two minuets long in total and with the film being as short as it is that is something that does make you wonder if the makers of this film knew that this would be the final Thomas film that they'd be working on and so they just threw alot of songs in it because they knew that they weren't going to make another one which if so then that's just not that good as you should always leave them wanting more and with a more manageable three songs you can that especially if you space them out a bit more better then they do in the final film as here it feels like that they do a song number every few minuets and nine times out of ten its for no reason whatsoever.
This film does actually a feature a few returning characters with the likes of Toby and Salty making there return to a Thomas movie. With the biggest surprise being Duck who hadn't been seen in any episode or movie of All Engines Go at all and while it's only Salty that plays a role in the film it was nice to see these returning characters and it was something that did say that the makers of this film do somewhat know what characters that the fans want to see as both Toby and Duck aren't the best known characters and yet they still got some love in this film and while it would have been nice to see them play a role in the films plot or even a speaking part would have been nice it's the fact that they got featured in the film at all that makes all the difference but at the same at the time tho given just how badly all of the of the other characters where done in this film and in the show itself as they all went from being fairly competent engines that whilst yes they did have there more dumber moments they were still more well rounded characters to being characters where all of them are the dumb one of the group with even Gordon being the main engine to pull both Annie and Clarabel which makes no sense as those where Thomas's carriages and Gordon always pulled the express something that he was proud of doing and yet here in this show all of that was gone for no reason with this film not even making a hint at Gordon pulling the express which was something that his character loved to do and yet here his character is basically the father figure to Thomas , Nia , Kana , Percy and Diesel which for the steam engines makes sense but for Diesel who hates steam engines it doesn't make sense.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty seven seconds. Which to be fair is a decent amount of running time for this film as alot of the other CGI Thomas films had very similar running times to them but this film really doesn't have the right amount of plot to cover that running time as this films plot really only has enough plot to cover about twenty minuets once your cut it down to bare essentials with this film not even using it's running time all that wisely either as the films plot isn't that well developed as the makers of this film are alot more bothered in fitting in as many songs as they can do then they in telling a good and well developed plot and while this film doesn't have alot of plot there to begin it is something that could have been better developed just by cutting down on the amount of songs that are in the film in the first place as that would have allowed for the plot to be well developed with this even having the added benefit of allowing for the films characters to be well developed as well as the makers of the film didn't bother to give any of the films characters any kind of character development in the first place which granted might be due to the fact that the characters could have gotten there development in various episodes of the show but at the same time tho it would have been nice to see the characters get some kind of character development as that would have made them feel like more well rounded characters but for whatever reason the makers of this film thought that packing in the film with more songs would make the film better rather then developing it's characters but I really will admit that this very film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As there were some cute funny jokes very early on in the film like the farmer conducting his animals like an orchestra or Sir Topham Hatt getting worked up about his opera not quite going right which was something that whilst it was against his character to act that worked up in the first place did result in some funny facial expressions from him however tho alot more of the films jokes just aren't that funny with there not even being a single joke that can be pointed out as the films best joke as to be frank alot of this films jokes aren't that funny in the first place with another joke that's somewhat decent being when Bruno doesn't want to hear loud things he steams up some airphones to put on and that's it with it being quite obvious that the makers of this film took the fact that this is a kids film quite seriously as there's nothing in this film that alot of people would find that funny inn the first place and while the Thomas brand has always been for kids they always made sure to include some actually funny jokes that alot of the family could laugh at where as here all of that wasn't present say what you will about Teen Titans Go but at least that show trys to make you laugh from time to time where as here the film doesn't bother to try to make you laugh in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall thank god that All Engines Go is done with as now we have some new Thomas content to look forward to in 2026 and whatever it maybe we at least know that it won't be as bad as All Engines Go was with this film being the perfect send off to show a show that nobody liked as this fil doesn't try to fix any of the issues of the show and instead doubles down on all of them in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 4.5 out of 10 from me.